notes: based on a friend's comments on a tumblr gifset. takes place during akt 22 when ahiru finds rue on top of the clock tower, basically: "what if ahiru really had fallen when she slipped during their conversation?"
Reaching Out
"Dangerous? Why would it be?" With a small scoff, Rue adjusted her seating position and stood up with all the grace of a true prima donna, the wind blowing through her hair and seemingly having no effect on her perfect balance on the small platform.
It still worried Ahiru enough for her to lean forward in concern, but recoiled slightly at the cold glare Rue then threw at her.
"As you know, I am Kraehe."
The words stung.
Ahiru looked at Rue with wide eyes, feeling her chest hurt, before leaning forward again and shouting at the top of her lungs: "YOU'RE RUE!"
The outcry was sudden and loud enough to startle some birds out of the trees nearby, and appeared to shock Rue as well. For a moment she merely stared at Ahiru, her lips parted yet speechless.
The reaction emboldened Ahiru. Now, more than ever, she was confident that Rue was Rue, and not Kraehe through and through.
She pushed onward, voice falling in volume but her words still strong. "That's who you are!"
The girl who chatted with her, danced with her, who said she was a sweet person upon their first exchange… that girl wasn't a fake person. She was real.
Slowly, Ahiru leaned out the window and began to stand up on her feet, holding tight to the open windowpanes. She took a tentative step out to the ledge. Maybe it was dangerous—no, it was definitely dangerous—but Ahiru just couldn't bear to keep on like this, shouting to Rue from far away. She needed to go to her, to be near. Closer.
It was cold up there, the wind disheveled her hair and proved all the more just how disciplined Rue was with her balance. It appeared as though it didn't even phase her. Ahiru probably would have taken more time to admire her if the situation were any different.
"That's how I think of you!" she insisted, and lifted a foot to attempt another step. "I mean—WAUUGH!"
She slipped. The shingle she stepped on wasn't flat and stable enough or perhaps the wind abruptly picked up, Ahiru wasn't sure exactly what caused it. But one moment she was calling to Rue and feeling—really feeling her words reaching her, the next she was facing the sky.
Instinctively, she reached out, only to be met with nothing. Her stomach lurched into her throat as gravity claimed her.
"Ahiru!"
So much happened within the next few moments that Ahiru was only able to process it all after she was saved.
She heard the frightened voice, followed by a gust of air and black feathers flying into her vision. For a disorienting moment she couldn't tell which way was up, but then felt a grip take hold of her hand and pull her upright in a whirlwind of black feathers and crows, fluttering and flying about around her.
It took a moment before Ahiru realized she was positioned in an arabesque, standing (floating?) opposite of Rue with their fingers entwined. Rue had changed appearance, now in the form of the raven princess, but Ahiru couldn't even bear to refer to her with that other name—not with that expression she was displaying, so full of fear and concern.
It wasn't Kraehe she was looking at.
As they made their slow descent to safety, Ahiru was finally given time to reflect on what just occurred.
Just now, when she called out… it wasn't Tutu's name, she thought as she met her friend's eyes. She called out mine.
The revelation made her heart soar.
And there was also the undeniable fact that this just as easily could have ended with Ahiru completely incapacitated, or worse. Kraehe could have finally defeated Tutu permanently if she had let her fall.
But she didn't.
Their feet gently touched the ground after a while, and Ahiru's hold on her friend's hand did not let go. In fact, her fingers only squeezed as she sent her a warm smile, her eyes full of something she couldn't discern—something knowing.
"… You see?" she said softly. "You're still Rue."
The girl sucked in a tight gasp and paled, as if she too had just realized what had happened, what she had done.
"I—!"
The words choked in her throat. For a moment Ahiru almost wondered if she would once again deny it, reiterate that she's really the raven princess, but no such things were said.
Instead she abruptly wretched her hand away from Ahiru's and turned away, the wind picking up around her. Before Ahiru could say anything more she had suddenly disappeared in a whirlwind of black feathers, leaving without another word.
Coming down from her arabesque, Ahiru stared at the space Rue vanished from, her mind still whirring from what all transpired in the last few minutes.
Rue's expression before departing wasn't one out of anger or annoyance. It was full of pain and conflict.
"Oh, Rue…" Ahiru mumbled to herself. Her friend was clearly hurting, fighting through her own battles. But what could she do to help?
Crestfallen, she went to search for her dropped books, resuming her path to class in a much more subdued manner and lacking her previous haste.
Her troubled thoughts continued to echo through her head as she made her way across the courtyard.
What could she do…?